John Neumeier’s ballet

Hamburg Ballet and John Neumeier

Genius is a word that is often overused, but is one that can certainly be applied to John Neumeier, the great choreographer and innovator in the dance theatre genre.

He has called Germany home for nearly half a century; his stellar career leading him first to Stuttgart, then Frankfurt and finally Hamburg, where he has been the heart and soul of the Hamburg Ballet since 1973. To this day, he endeavours to seek out new forms of contemporary ballet and to contextualise them in classical ballet, whether through re-interpretations of old favourites – from the Nutcracker to Sleeping Beauty – or through his own works, which are heavily influenced by the Russian dance legend Vaslav Nijinsky.